Beware of the disgruntled employee, that angry ex-spouse, and the customer who loses his temper in a big way over simple disputes. If you are responsible for the safety and security of a building and the employees and invitees inside of it, you need to be paying attention to an ongoing problem.

There have been a number of examples this month of vehicle-into-building crashes perpetrated with intent to cause damage or harm. A hotel in Oklahoma. A Scientology building in Texas. Convenience stores and public offices are also common targets. Places like court houses would be more frequent targets, but those are most often protected against such attacks.

The Comfort Inn & Suites looked clean and peaceful before a guest, angry about charges on his bill, decided to register his protest in a very graphic way. Did he realize that he was risking the lives of two employees at the front desk when he pulled his stunt? Would he have cared if he had realized it? Take a look at the video from NBC News and and see for yourself HERE.

Usually when we see these kinds of crashes, the driver had no intention whatsoever to crash into a building. Most often, they are pedal error or driver error accidents that happen very suddenly and with no warning -- and such accidents happen at least 60 times per day in this country. Every day.

But there are many more deliberate vehicle crashes into commercial stores -- we call them "Crash and Grabs" or "Ram Raids." Most often, these kinds of crashes utilize the mass of a vehicle to break through windows, doors and walls of stores and warehouses to commit theft -- thieves steal ATM machines, jewelry, guns, high value clothing, and so on.

All of these crashes -- be they accidents, theft, or deliberate attacks -- are risks every day where Americans work, play, and shop. In Alva Oklahoma, two employees at the front desk were put at risk this time because of an angry guest -- but it could also have been a driver on medications hitting the gas instead of the brake or a forgetful delivery truck driver who forgot to set the parking brake. And almost all of these kinds of crashes can be prevented with some good design, some common sense, and some simple and attractive barriers.

The first of what will no doubt be many lawsuits resulting from the Stillwater Oklahoma tragedy was filed yesterday. Read the coverage HERE.

The important thing to remember is that these accidents keep on happening and will continue to keep happening because of the simple expectation that just because an accident has not happened at previous events, no accident will happen at future events. Unfortunately, this is just not true. And how I know that it is not true is because these accidents keep on happening.

One of these days I will team up with some very smart people and write a white paper or an article that will lay everything out for local officials and public safety folks who are responsible for events where streets are closed. In the meantime, the financial impact of this accident will probably go a very long way towards convincing officials all over the country to more closely examine how they protect the public at these events.

This accident was foreseeable, predictable, and preventable. The suits will soon be rolling in, and at the end of it all 4 people will still be dead and many more will have permanent painful injuries. The courts will sort out the financial aspects eventually -- but probably not before next year's homecoming parade at OSU. Will they do a better job next year? Let's hope so.

Hey Wendy's -- Your customers are getting injured and killed in your restaurants. Where is your national program to upgrade the safety of your storefronts?

Here is just the BASIC list of vehicle-into-restaurant crashes at Wendy's in 2015. These do not include parking lot accidents, simple building scrapes, or drive thru lane mishaps; these are crashes where the vehicle broke the envelope of the building and caused damages and/or injuries. In at least one case, a customer was killed.

One common element is these eight different sites is that the storefronts are unprotected, and a review of all eight of the sites listed above shows that most have nose-in parking and a lack of safety barriers installed. Seeing the number of crashes and injuries so far this year, you would think that Wendy's would understand the need to take corrective action in the design of parking lots, the layout of new stores, and require the addition of simple barriers in vulnerable areas. You would think that -- but unfortunately you would be wrong. Here are some photos of NEWLY REMODELED OR NEWLY BUILT RESTAURANTS which as you can see continue the vulnerabilities that death and injury and repetition have already exposed.

Wendy's YOU ARE ON NOTICE as a result of more than 100 accidents since 2012 -- persisting in poor design, poor layout, and the lack of safety barriers at your restaurants have resulted in deaths and injuries to your patrons and employees. Wendy's risk managers -- at what point do the costs of doing the wrong thing finally result in your company doing the right thing?

Good news -- Texas teenager Jessica Bunch, after four surgeries and something approaching $1million in hospital bills, seems to be recovering slowly from her horrific injuries.

Jessica was standing at a Redbox machine in front of a Wagreens store in Canton Texas on 7 July, and was struck down by a driver who accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. Neither Redbox nor Walgreens, despite dozens and dozens of such crashes going back at least five years, cared enough for the safety of customers (or employees) to bother with simple, inexpensive, and effective safety barriers placed between Jessica and oncoming vehicles.

Jessica and her father want to change laws to prevent this sort of accident from ever happening again; such efforts are already underway in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Florida.

You can see more of Jessica's story in the previous blog post, but for right now, I will let Jessica's father, Don Bunch, give you an update in his own words. You can see his post online (and donate to her recovery fund) at the GiveForward fundraising page "Jessica Bunch -Extended Hospital Relief" HERE

Jessica finally got out of ICU on Day 17 and has been moved to a room. She is trying to eat a little, we have got to get the pace picked up a little or they will have to put a feeding tube in.Hopefully all surgeries are done. She has had four of them, the first was to stop the internal bleeding, and the second was to remove her appendix, gall bladder, and part of her bowel, the third was to reconstruct her pelvis and the fourth was to reconstruct her rib cage. She has been put through a living Hell right here on earth.I felt so sorry for her, she lifted her gown and looked down at her tummy and started crying, I ask what was wrong and she said that my body is so cut up, I will always have these scars. I tried to talk to her to soothe the heart ache, but she is heart broken.Her attitude is a lot better than I ever expected, for someone who was literally crushed to death, she is taking all of this pretty good. She is very optimistic about the accident. She would like to talk to the elderly women that ran over, Jessica says that it will help with forgiving her. I hope this is true.All in all I’m glad to have my baby girl back. We still have a long way to go, but with the Grace of GOD we will get there.Thank you so much for all the donations, but most of all thank you for the prayers.Don Bunch

This story is a particularly tough one -- but there are things we can all do to help Jessica Bunch and her family, and something we can all do to force Redbox to step up and protect employees and customers who are using or servicing their outdoor rental machines.

First, the story of Jessica Bunch is one of those split second accidents that was totally foreseeable yet no one had seen fit to do anything to prevent. Standing at a Redbox machine outside of a CVS in Canton, Texas, Jessica was run over from behind when a 73 year-old driver failed to stop her SUV and accelerated over the sidewalk and crushed Jessica, severely injuring her.

Here is some additional information and more video showing the layout of the machine at the time, as well as the brand new replacement machine already installed in exactly the same site, WITH NO PROTECTIVE BARRIERS INSTALLED TO PREVENT A REPEAT OF THIS TRAGEDY: See the YouTube HERE

Now there are TWO WAYS to help --

1) Jessica already has over $400,000 in medical bills and her family has started an online fund raiser on Give Forward to help cover these costs. There are also updates on her condition and additional information. Please give here: https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/rgf9/jessica-bunch-extendend-hospital-relief2) Jessica's father makes an impassioned point that putting up another Redbox machine in this location without any kind of protective barriers installed is just asking for another tragedy to occur and it shows that both Redbox and CVS are just pretending that nothing ever happened.

Call Redbox (owned by Coinstar) at (630) 756-8000 and ask to speak to the person in charge of customer safety for Redbox. If they cannot give you that number, ask to speak to the legal department.

Call CVS President Larry Merlo at 401-765-1500. Ask him when CVS is going to start making ALL of their storefronts safer for customers and pedestrians.

These accidents are completely foreseeable, completely predictable, and completely preventable. For about $1200, CVS and Redbox could have prevented that SUV from crossing the sidewalk and crushing Jessica against the Redbox machine. Redbox has been on notice since at least 2012 that their customers and employees are at risk every day, and CVS has experienced hundreds of building strikes from wayward vehicles at their stores all over the United States. This accident was not a surprise to them.

California State Assembly passes AB 764 -- First-of-its-kind legislation promoting parking lot safety and insurance discounts. A press release from Assemblyman Quirk's office can be found HERE.AB 764, a bill brought before the California Assembly by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, was passed by the Assembly 73 -0 on May 14th, 2015. It will now go to the California Senate for consideration and passage. A copy of the language of the bill can be found HERE and at storefrontsafety.org.The measures authorizes changes to parking lot design and/or the addition of safety barriers at all state buildings and university campuses in California, and empowers the State Commission to revise building codes to require changes to parking lot design and/or the addition of safety barriers at commercial parking lots. The measure also amends portions of the California Insurance Code to permit insurers to offer discounts to commercial property policy holders that invest in such safety measures.

California is therefore farthest along in the United States in the fight to increase safety at parking lots through better design and building code requirements for safety barriers. In addition,the insurance provisions in AB 764 will enhance the chances of early compliance by property owners, developers, retail chains, and store and restaurant operators because it opens to door to a reduction in liability claims and savings on recurring costs from premiums:

"11895.(a) An insurer may consider the installation of vehicle barriers on a commercial property parking lot as a safety measureeligible for....a discount on the property owner's rates for insurance covering damage or loss to thecovered commercial property, or liability..."This is a HUGE step forward in the adoption of preventative measures that will reduce the number and severity of storefront crashes in the United States. Join with us in the support of this important legislative effort, and please support these other measures also working their way through the process;State of California AB-764 (as above)Commonwealth of Massachusetts HOUSE # 2126 INTRODUCED 2015City of Artesia California ORDINANCE PASSED AND IN EFFECTCity of Buena Park California ORDINANCE BEGINNING DRAFTOrange County Florida ORDINANCE IN DRAFT -- VOTE DUE SUMMER 2015States where similar measures might be introduced as soon as 2016:TexasGeorgiaFlorida

Ironically, on several occasions this very Hall at the convention center has hosted security trade shows, featuring best practices and products used to protect public buildings (such as convention centers) from terrorist attacks and vehicle attacks. Despite this, the other night a very drunk driver in a Toyota Camry drove over two cheap bolt-down bollards and through the doors to the convention center, made a U-turn, and then drove back out a different set of doors. Very entertaining security video is available -- SEE VIDEO HERE

Public buildings that are this poorly protected make no sense. If you cannot protect thousands of attendees against drunk drivers in Camrys, how are you going to protect them from intentional vehicle attacks? Where are the designers? Where are the security consultants? And why are facilities not paying attention to such obvious problems?

These bollards would never pass the ASTM F-3016 test standard for protective barriers that was adopted in November -- which uses as a standard an impact from a 5000LB vehicle traveling at 30 MPH. These units crumpled from an impact from a passenger vehicle under 3,000 pounds going backwards and considerably less than 30MPH. Wrong device, wrong place.

Storefront crashes can happen anywhere. They can happen any time. And they can happen for many reasons. But one thing remains consistent; almost all of these storefront crashes are preventable and foreseeable because so many of them fit into such a common pattern.

This weekend, Rite Aid employee Sharla Cummings was critically injured when a Lexus sedan driven by an 84 year-old customer failed to stop when parking, but instead accelerated through the ADA parking space, over a very low curb, and straight through windows to strike Ms. Cummings as she was working at the cashier's booth.

You can read the excellent news coverage and see the on-scene photography from the Portland Press Herald HERE

ADA spaces pointed right at store entrances create a much higher than normal risk of a vehicle-into-building crash. Pedal error / driver error crashes account for more than 40% of all storefront crashes; pointing the highest risk drivers at the most vulnerable part of the storefront can have tragic consequences, as it did in this case.

This accident was foreseeable because of the nose-in ADA parking aimed at the front entrance. This accident was preventable because one of two simple steps would have kept that Lexus from crashing through the entrance; either eliminate the nose-in parking and place those spaces elsewhere, or install a simple and inexpensive tested steel barrier or bollard between parking vehicles and the sidewalk. Sharla Cummings would have been uninjured but for the lack of simple planning, at a cost of less than a thousand dollars or so.

60 times per day. 500 killed per year. And Sharla Cummings is now one of the 4,000 or so people that will be injured in a storefront crash this year -- and it didn't have to be that way.

Great progress has been made in Orange County since the April 2014 tragedy near Orlando Florida when a KinderCare facility was struck, killing four year-old Lilly Quintas and injuring more than a dozen children and teachers.

Kudos to Orange County Fire Chief Otto Drozd and his Task Force for putting together research and best practices in his presentation to the County Commissioners yesterday.

Among the many interesting statistics: more than 70 vehicle-into-building crashes in two years in the unincorporated parts of Orange County -- with 37 people hospitalized. Also of great interest -- the number of accidents where drivers lost control of their cars and crashed: 1800 road departure crashes in 14 months!!!!!

For more complete coverage of the presentation and a view of the KinderCare site where the tragedy occurred, please see the coverage from WFTV Channel 9 HERE

We will continue to work with Chief Drozd on the ordinance to protect day cares and preschools, and we will report on progress.

Copyright 2018 by Rob Reiter. All rights reserved. Content may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and our World Wide Web URL http://www.storefrontcrashexpert.com.